Swarming Sovereignty

Lia sat down in one of the chairs in her living room, letting out a deep sigh. Yesterday she had finished learning the ropes of the internet from Fae, and had officially decided to take a step back from the war effort for a few days to deal with the ramifications of gaining access to the internet. And, though she had just started, those days had already been packed; the first order of business had been to figure out a way to get the information off of her tablet and into a form that other people could use, and that took a little doing but they managed to figure out something after a couple of hours.

She had been able to use conversion to quickly put together something resembling a “printer”, a device from other planes that was used to mass-produce written papers, but the real trouble came from getting it to connect to her tablet. She had been tempted to try using the tablet as conversion material so she could link its functionality to the Swarm management Skills she had, but that came with a lot of risks that she wasn’t willing to take.

In the end, Lia had ended up doing it “manually”, sending snapshots of her memory to the printer-thing via telepathy, which it would then print out. It was a little tedious, but it got the job done, and that was all that mattered; once the information was in a form that others could take, they could make as many copies as they needed.

The rest of that day had been spent going through encyclopedia articles, printing them, then sending those printings off to have copies made so they could be distributed to others. Fortunately, paper wasn’t in short supply; Rose had been able to make a few plants that streamlined the papermaking process, and they had made a point of having a lot around for the sake of educating the children.

They had needed a lot of paper, too; between everything Lia printed and the copies that were made of those printings, they must have used thousands or even tens of thousands of sheets of paper just that day alone. Today had been spent in a series of meetings, talking about the new technologies, what could be made immediately and what needed other technologies to be made first, and even what could potentially be improved by conversion.

Judging by the dark circles under the eyes of Lily and some of the others, Lia suspected they hadn’t slept since receiving their copies of the encyclopedia articles, but Lia decided not to lecture them for it too harshly. They were so obviously excited about the ramifications of this new technology that this clearly wasn’t them feeling like they needed to work overtime to get things done, but them being unable to tear their attention away from the documents, even to sleep.

In the end, she had told them that they needed to get at least four hours of sleep and one meal per day, and that once they had finished sifting through all the documents, they needed to take at least two days off to rest. Even that seemed to dampen the moods of some of them, but that was as much as Lia would allow. Still, no one complained, especially once Rose reminded them that there was a good chance that some of their meetings would end up being streamed, and that people would get the wrong idea if they saw tired and seemingly overworked researchers.

And, in the middle of it all, the announcement they had recorded regarding streaming and the launch of Lia’s “channel” had gone live. Lia had taken a short break to watch the stream chat during it, but the messages had gone by so incredibly fast that she was unable to make out much of anything. So, now that she had more time, she was going to “ego search” and see what people were saying about her and the Swarm as a whole.

She scrolled through posts on her for a while, and, to be honest, she had expected a lot worse; somewhere in the realm of ten to twenty percent of posts she had seen were positive in one way or another. She had thought that most people would want no part of what the Swarm had to offer, and there were a lot of people who were extremely vocal about the Swarm being dangerous, but there were some who were cautiously optimistic about it.

What had been even more surprising, though, was the amount of people who seemed ambivalent about the whole thing. Given the way the gods making World Saviors had framed the swarm, Lia had expected there to be next to no one who didn’t care one way or the other. Yet, another twenty or thirty percent of posts she saw seemed pretty neutral.

The reasons they had varied greatly, but there were a few that came up more often than others. The most common hesitancies about the Swarm were expected. People understandably expressed feeling uncomfortable with the mental changes inherent to the Swarm, but Fae’s streams seemed to have quelled many anxieties about becoming unthinking drones or the like.

Many people felt that there wasn’t a huge benefit to the Swarm, since their societies were more advanced than those on Ratha, and Lia had to admit they had something of a point; societal issues were much less common and in far less need of correction. Still, others were very excited about the prospect of conversion as a means of scientific advancement, “biopunk”, as they often called it.

She made careful note of any and all ideas that people had for technological improvements; their team of innovators was relatively small at the moment, and there were thousands of people online putting ideas out there. Quite a few ideas she didn’t really understand, but she wrote them down anyway; those just provided her another new thing to look into.

“What are people saying?” Rose asked, leaning over the chair to hug Lia from behind.

Lia leaned back into her wife’s embrace, closing her eyes contentedly. “It’s better than we thought it would be.” She said. “I think thirty or forty percent of posts I see are either positive about us or have mixed or no strong feelings.”

“That many?” Rose asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Looking at these posts, it seems that Fae’s streams have helped quell some people’s anxieties.” Lia explained. “By and large most people seem to think that we’re overstepping our bounds and should just stay put, though. And, well, I think they’re right, but…”

“When it comes to the strength of our planes, Jerry doesn’t do partial measures.” Connie called out from the kitchen. “Most of us gods are pretty sure it’s some sort of PTSD-adjacent thing from the Administrator War.”

“The what?” Lia asked. “And what’s PTSD?”

“Did I never mention it to you before?” Connie asked. “Well, a very long time ago, long before this plane even existed, , long before this plane even existed, there was a huge war between Administrators. I wasn’t around back then, but from everything I’ve heard, it was bad. Jerry lost a lot of people he was close to, and he’s made it his life’s mission to make sure he never has to go through something like that again. For us, that means making sure his planes are as strong as possible, because our planes are some of the strongest in our faction.

“And PTSD is…well, it stands for post-traumatic stress disorder, and it’s not exactly the easiest thing to explain, because it’s not exactly one thing. It refers to negative effects stemming from a traumatic experience, in this case, the war. For him it’s mostly manifested as an obsession with making sure his people are prepared on the off-chance another Administrator War begins, but…well, until now it hasn’t been a huge deal.”

“Do you think we can…talk him out of making us conquer other planes?” Lia asked.

“No.” Connie replied. “At least, not as things are now. The advancement in system tech Amelia made is too large for that, and this is by far the easiest and cheapest way to get everyone onto the new system. And, once it’s over, the reputation of the gods won’t take as much of a hit as other system transitions might incur, as well as allowing us to make tweaks as new things are discovered without risking too much unrest.

“That being said, there are some planes you won’t be interacting with, ones that we’ve been running as pure experiments. This plane was originally one of those planes, actually, but…well, I guess that means the experiment was a success.”

“Does that mean that if another Swarm or similar pops up in another plane then we’ll go through this again, except with us on the defense?” Amelia asked, voice slightly raised so she could be heard from the kitchen.

Connie thought on that for a moment. “I don’t think so. We can only put people through something like this once or twice, and since we can just incorporate anything new into the Swarm’s system and there would be no other benefits the Swarm couldn’t provide, it’s not worth the war.”

“Thank goodness.” Lia replied. “One war is enough for my lifetime.”

“Yeah.” Rose agreed. “When it’s over, I’ll be glad for the peace.”

As Rose was saying that, Chrys stepped through the entrance to the house. “I’m back!” She announced.

Rose walked over to her and hugged her. “How was your work today, sweetie?”

“Great!” Chrys said cheerfully. “I found this gorgeous place in the mountains, it’s got a great view of the surrounding area and has a pretty defensible cave to retreat into to boot. I think it’d be a good place for a watch tower or some other sort of outpost as we start pushing more and more into the Spine.”

“I’m happy to hear it!” Rose replied, holding Chrys a little tighter before letting go. “Why don’t you take Fae with you to go see it? She’d be able to give us easy access to video and I think you two would get along pretty well. You’re both really into exploring and she’s easy to talk to.”

“I haven’t really talked with her much, but I’ll go and bring up the topic with her after dinner. She’s in the capital right now, right?”

“Yeah, until Lia gets the hang of streaming, she’ll be sticking around.” Rose confirmed.

Chrys looked over at Lia. “Have you seen what people are saying yet? Or have you not had time?”

“I was actually just doing that.” Lia replied.

Chrys walked over and took a seat in another one of the living room’s chairs. “And what are they saying?”

“Well, it’s mixed, but better than we thought…”

---

Fae chatted with her stream while she waited for Chrys. It wasn’t that Chrys was late or anything, Fae just hadn’t had anything else lined up and wanted to make sure she didn’t keep Chrys waiting.

It seemed Chrys had the same idea, because five minutes prior to their meeting time, she showed up. “Fae?” She asked, blinking in surprise. “I didn’t get the time wrong, did I?”

“No, I’ve just been talking with my stream.” Fae said. “It’s what I would have been doing n anyway, so I figured I’d do it here.”

“You sound like you’re meeting for a date.” Fae’s text to speech pointed out.

Zip it. Fae chided. This is just polite conversation.

“Oh, uh, good.” Chrys replied. “Um…should we get going? It’s a few hours from here so it’ll be a bit. And it’s gonna be dangerous too, though…I guess your stats mean there probably won’t be anything too threatening for you, but still.”

“I’ll be careful.” Fae promised. “You don’t mind if I ask a few questions about you on the way, do you?”

“While we’re near the city it’ll be fine, we make sure to keep anything nasty away, but otherwise give me some sort of nonverbal signal first; I’ll need to make sure it’s safe for us to talk. You might not have an issue with these monsters, but I still need to be careful.”

Fae nodded. “Alright. Lead the way.”

Chrys led Fae through the portal and out into the bottom of the tree. Fae hadn’t been out here more than once or twice; the area, while pretty, was dangerous, and she had had other priorities before now. She took a moment to take in the area, keeping an eye on chat as they oohed and aahed over it, before striking up conversation with Chrys as they moved.

“So,” she began, “what’s it like, being crown princess?”

“Figured you’d ask.” Chrys said. “Stifling. I mean…I’m really crown princess in name only; if Lia dies, it’s all over. And so that just means people treat me differently for no reason. I had enough of being royalty in my previous life, I don’t need it now.”

“You were Rose’s daughter in your previous life, right? Not just this one?” Fae asked, more for the sake of her chat than herself.

“Yeah. You’re probably wondering why I look so much like Lia, right?”

“Well, yes, but I’m more wondering what you think about how history sees you, and how being royalty in your past life compares to being royalty now.” Fae replied.

“History got me pretty much spot on.” Chrys replied. “Have you read a history book?”

“Not much, and pretty much all of my stream won’t know.” Fae said. “What do they say about you?”

“They more or less call me a fool of a girl who didn’t think objectively about what she was doing and ended a golden age because of it.” Chrys said flatly. “I killed Mom. Elements of the court convinced me that she was holding the world back and gave me a specially enchanted dagger that could kill her. She let me and the world erupted into chaos because of it. I lived the rest of my life in shame and regret.”

“She has a good relationship with her mom, though. How?” Fae’s text to speech asked.

“Chat wants to know how you still have a good relationship with your mom.” Fae relayed.

Chrys sighed. “I sometimes wonder myself. She forgave me while the knife was still inside of her, and blamed herself for not being able to be there for me as much as she would have liked. Though we can’t remember it, we made up completely in the afterlife, and, well…she’s a good person. The best I’ve ever met. We’re eternally grateful that we’ve been allowed a second chance like this, where we can make up for all that lost time.”

“What happened to your old mom?” Fae asked. Chat, if you’re wondering, Rose was formerly her father, not her mother.

“She…well, she wasn’t a good person, and apparently chose to reincarnate after a minor squabble. In a twist of irony, she became Amelia, and now she’s more in love with Rose than she ever had been in her previous life. And, back to what you were asking about how being crown princess then compares to being crown princess now, it was infinitely worse.

“Right now it’s mostly just awkward, but back then…everyone wanted something from me, and I had to learn all these stuffy manners and I couldn’t really do…anything. At least now they’ll let me go out and scout. And that’s not even getting into all the politics and other annoying stuff. Being a princess may sound good, and I was certainly more privileged than most, but I genuinely would rather have just been a normal girl.”

“What was she saying about Lia?” Fae’s text to speech asked.

Fae didn’t immediately respond. “I…well, I can’t say I can truly understand, but I think I understand the sentiment, at least; I know I would feel stifled in your position. At the very least, I’m glad things are better for you now than they were back then.”

“Don’t get me wrong,” Chrys said hurriedly, “I love my life, most of the time I don’t even think about this kind of stuff, I’m just complain to complain more than anything. I just…have my own stuff to work through, you know? Anyway, I’m sure your chat is wondering why I look so much like Lia, given that I mentioned it earlier. Want to know?”

Fae chose not to pursue the subject any further. “Sure.”

Chrys launched into a story about how Lia had unintentionally weaved some sort of grand magic to turn Chrys into what she was now, and Fae let her finish without interruption, no matter how her chat badgered her. “That’s…incredible.” Fae said. “But…how do you cast magic on accident?”

“People like us can’t.” Chrys said. “When you reach a certain point, the rules of magic as we know them begin to break down. Mom and her lovers seem to understand, but I’m a lot fuzzier on the details. It’s the same sort of power that allows her to reincarnate people, I think. So…not something any of us can actually replicate.”

“Do you have any idea how she got that powerful?” Fae asked curiously.

“I think Amelia gave Lia some of her power when she reincarnated her.” Chrys said, shrugging.

By now, Fae was starting to put two and two together; whatever this power was, it was probably related to the thing Lia had that the gods wanted. Of course, that was something she couldn’t say out loud, not while she was streaming, but it was a curious connection nonetheless.

“This is an obvious lie.” Fae’s text to speech protested. “As a scientist, I can say that this is’nt how any of this actually works. Magic follows rules, it’s not something that you can just feel your way into, not at this high of a level.”

Can you make a system or reincarnate people? Fae countered. If our rules told us how to do that sort of thing, then we would be way more technologically advanced, wouldn’t we? Besides, we know that Amelia possesses a “near godlike” level of power, and it stands to reason that something on that level would operate differently than something on the level we work on.

“You alright?” Chrys asked. “You’ve been quiet for a bit.”

“Just arguing with my chat. Some of them seem to think that you’re lying about this.” Fae replied.

“I don’t blame them.” Chrys said. “It’s really strange, but it’s how things are. If they don’t want to accept that, then there’s nothing I can really do. They’re going to have to get used to their common sense being overturned in one way or another, and trying to find ‘reasonable explanations’ for some things is only going to drive them crazy.”

The conversation fell into a comfortable rhythm until they reached the point where Chrys felt normal conversation was no longer safe, at which point Fae switched to bantering with her stream telepathically and taking in the surrounding nature. The area was truly stunning, raw untouched wilderness with great views courtesy of the mountains. Every so often she’d interrupt their silence to ask Chrys a question chat had for her, but other than that it was just the two of them and nature.

They reached the spot they were aiming for, and Fae took the time to poke around thoroughly, getting good footage of the whole area and even exploring all of the little cave that Chrys was suggesting they build around. It was the kind of place Fae could see herself setting up shop in, perhaps doing a “survive one year in the wilderness” challenge again or something of the like. There was plenty of game and edible plants nearby, and there was a river down the hill that would provide fresh water.

“Hey, I have a question.” Chrys asked suddenly.

“What is it?” Fae asked curiously.

“What happened to your other body, and all of your old abilities? Are they just…lost?”

“Good question.” Fae responded. “Going by how the window text made it sound, this is my other body. They…merged, I guess? Specifically, it said my other body would be made to match the one I had as part of the Swarm before making the decision, and transported to where I was. Seeing as how there weren’t two bodies when the process finished, I’ve assumed that they’ve been merged somehow.

“As for my old abilities…well, the systems aren’t one to one so it’s hard to compare, but I’ve picked up analogues for everything important pretty quickly. I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some sort of priority to gaining Skills for stuff I could do before. And if I didn’t like what I had in the Swarm body all I’d really need to do is wait and surrender once the Swarm got to me. Regardless, I’m not overly worried about it, not when there’s so much choice in what I get.”

“Oh. Makes sense.” Chrys said. “Um…think you’ve seen everything you need around here or do you want to look around more? I’m fine with whatever.”

“If we’re thinking about making an outpost here, I think it’d be good to get some video of the surroundings, as well as information on the kinds of natural resources we have around here.” Fae replied. “I’m going to take some time to examine everything with my identification Skill, even stuff like rocks. You’re welcome to stay if you’d like, but if you want to head back that’s fine too. It’s not like I can get lost on the way back with the World Tree being so big.”

Chrys thought on that for a moment. “I’ll stick around a bit and see if there are any monsters I can hunt.” She said. “I’ll come back to the cave in about an hour if you’re interested in heading back with me, if you’re not there then I’ll just head back on my own.”

“Got it.” Fae said. “Thanks for taking me out here, it’s been fun.”

“You’re welcome.” Chrys replied, blushing slightly. “It was…nice, having someone like you to go explore with.”

“Well, if you want to do this again, just hit me up.” Fae said, flashing Chrys a smile. “I’m always ready for something like this.”

“I will.” Chrys said. “Um…bye for now, Fae.”

“See you later!” Fae replied cheerily.

As Chrys began to leave, Fae’s text to speech fired up. “Now kiss.”

We’re going to go look at rocks now, just because you said that. Fae teased. Chat, you can blame this person if the next part of stream is boring.That being said, let’s see if we can’t liven this up, shall we? I’m going to try and get one hundred unique results from identification in the next hour, not counting bugs. Mods on those platforms with a prediction system, can we get one going? And I’ll also throw ten gifted subscriptions in for each platform, just to help spice things up. I’ll give it one minute before we start, any questions?